Ageing society has implications for entire children's workforce
Denise Burke
Monday, March 30, 2015
We're all getting older. But what has an ageing society got to do with the children's and young people's sector?
Well, there are now more people in Britain over the age of 65 than under 16 and, by 2033, nearly a quarter of the population will be aged over 65. Multigenerational families will be increasingly complex and diverse, and health and wealth inequalities will grow.
These demographic shifts create challenges and opportunities for our whole society, not just those working with older people.
A report by the Commission on the Voluntary Sector & Ageing - Decision Time: Will the voluntary sector embrace the age of opportunity? - highlights some particular issues for the children's and young people's sector.
In particular, it asks: can we combat ageism and promote age equality? Can we develop new "age-aware but age-neutral" ways of working to support individuals throughout their longer lives? Can we develop new ways of promoting health and wellbeing throughout our lives? How do we ensure that the opportunities of an ageing population - with growing numbers of older volunteers, workers and donors - benefit children's and young people's organisations?
Everyone working with children and young people should be concerned about tackling ageism. Stereotypes about any age group hold us all back. We should not write off any part of our population, and tackling ageism should become as instinctive as speaking out against racism.
It's worth looking again at your work to root out ageist assumptions and stereotypes, and promote age equality. Age proofing your work for the implications of an ageing population should be common practice and a part of all equalities and diversity work.
An interesting challenge posed by the commission is to ask us why we have organisations based on age. It calls on organisations working on the same issues with different age groups to collaborate more closely and, in some cases, to consider merging. For example, action on issues such as poverty, mental health and loneliness in old age needs to start much earlier in life.
Indeed, prevention and early intervention really do start before birth when the seeds of not just a great childhood but also a great old age are sown. The voluntary sector is ideally placed to deliver the cost-effective early interventions that are needed to support people to stay healthy, connected and engaged throughout their lives.
The current prevention agenda, such as early years work and public health promotion, is showing real promise. We need to develop this further by taking a whole-life approach and enabling people in their mid-life or early 60s to take control of their later years and stay healthy and active.
Children's charities could also explore ways of preparing young people for life in a world that is older and for their own longer lives. Why shouldn't pension planning be on the school curriculum? And shouldn't we pilot services that support people in mid-life through health, wealth, work and wellbeing checks?
With more diverse family structures and more families spread across the globe, we will need new models of care and support at both ends of the age spectrum. We need new ways of supporting people to continue providing unpaid care and of brokering caring arrangements within and between generations. And we need to look at how to scale up these initiatives to have a significant impact for many more families.
The commission also suggests new ways of working for all charities. It argues that an ageing population should boost the number of older volunteers, workers and donors, but charities need to be prepared to make the most of this opportunity.
For example, volunteering will be just one of the increasing demands on baby boomers, competing for their time and resources with paid employment, caring for family members including grandchildren, as well as travel and leisure. Volunteer roles need to become more flexible and attractive to people looking to use their skills in later life. And charities need to think about how to engage the shrinking proportion of younger people in lifelong habits of giving time and skills. The commission calls on the government to pilot financial incentives to volunteer.
Of course, changing the way organisations work is not easy. That's why the commission has called on funders, from statutory sources to philanthropists and corporate donors, to help make these changes happen. They could encourage and stimulate new approaches to an ageing society.
The voluntary sector should be the catalyst for change in our society. Our ageing society has profound implications for all of us working with children and young people. Now we must be bold, shift our thinking and get prepared for the changes to come.
Denise Burke is director of United for All Ages and Good Care Guide